Tech Blog

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Smile! You're on iPod Camera.
Rumors abound that iPod's will be growing eyes soon...
Techcrunch and a number of other sites are reporting that some next-gen Apple iPods (including the Touch) will have onboard cameras for still and video. Techcrunch considers the iPod Touch with a lens:

That’s exactly the same price as the high end Flip Mino HD that we gush about so often. The Flip will take marginally better video, but it doesn’t have on-device editing and uploading to YouTube. Nor does it support Internet browsing, email and the thousands of games and other apps available for the iPod Touch. And we haven’t even mentioned the iPod’s primary purpose - music.

My take? Look for iPods with cameras for this holiday buying season.

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Windows 7 pre-order? You missed it.
Microsoft marketing is really boggling me lately...
Considering that Apple's Snow Leopard upgrade will cost me a measly $29.00 CAD, I'm somewhat confused by Microsoft's pricing strategy. Maybe they think Windows is a premium OS which justifies the higher price. Whatever. This past week Microsoft's retail partners (including Future Shop) were taking Windows 7 pre-orders for a product to be released in October. Upside was that Win7 pre-order was 1/2 off. Downside? I can buy two Snow Leopard upgrade licenses for one Win7 upgrade license.

Oh, wait, did you want vomit with that browser?
Yep, Microsoft's marketing department does it again. This hastily-pulled online ad offended quite a few folk. According the Wall Street Journal report:

The Microsoft ad seems to suggest that the husband is involved in a Web fetish that’s far more troubling. Memo to Microsoft: probably best to avoid “creative” that implies you make software for people who are into something so unspeakable it causes your loved ones to lose their breakfast.

The Wall Street Journal has a copy of the ad on their site, you've been warned.

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Google OS -- coming soon to a computer near you.
Light-weight, Linux based, and based in the cloud...
Given all the hype surrounding the upcoming release of Apple's Snow Leopard and Microsoft's Windows 7, the timing of Google's Chrome OS announcement is a strategic thrust aimed at keeping Google in the mix. Chrome OS isn't due to be released until 2010, and only on netbooks at that time. But, with this announcement, this example from Ars Technica shows that the tech industry is a-buzz with interest:

The varied speculation over the years may result from the fact that Google can take several possible paths to build such an operating system. One possibility is that the OS could be a port of the Android mobile platform that has been modified to deliver a more netbook-friendly user interface. This seems highly unlikely, however, as Google has unambiguously stated in the past that it has no plans to adapt Android to netbooks itself. The search giant prefers to leave that as an exercise for third-party adopters.

Of course, what good would the Future Shop Techblog be if we didn't weigh in with an opinion
Tris Hussey has some thoughts about chrome:

The first question that you should ask is: why should I care? The next question should then be: when can I try it?

If you've not yet read his post, check out the full thing here.

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Oh week, how weird you were.
Some weeks, you just have to scratch your head...
Spy School didn't cover this -- according to the Times Online, the next head spy-wrangler at MI6 has been outed on Facebook...by his wife.

Back to the body-function-fluid thing for a minute...It appears that researchers are developing a process that uses urine as a source of Hydrogen fuel for cars. Seriously.

Hydrogen power has long been hampered by the lack of an inexpensive, renewable fuel. As it turns out, the solution may be right underneath us. Researchers at Ohio University have discovered that hydrogen can be produced from urine using an electrolytic process at only a fraction of the cost of generating hydrogen from water.

Finally a sad note...does anyone remember CompuServe?
Back in the day...way back, you had to connect to online services at 300 baud using a modem. CompuServe, Genie, and others were the online services that we all used. They hosted their own applications, games, and communities. They also connected to each other using government technology known as the Internet. It was so cool.

Back to the matter at hand. CompuServe is dead. AOL, the parent company of the once-geek-Mecca for everything tech, pulled the plug. Last week. And we apparently didn't even notice... R.I.P. CompuServe...you were the gateway drug for many of today's netizens.

Message Edited by ElizabethS on 07-30-2009 09:18 PM

Message Edited by ElizabethS on 09-10-2009 09:37 PM